Photography judge profiles

Richard is an experienced horticulturist who has worked at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew for 35 years.
 
He is currently head of garden design at Kew and his designs have included The Great Broad Walk Borders and Evolution Garden.
 
He is a photographer and author, writing articles for gardening magazines and websites, and has written eight books on plants and gardens, often illustrated with his own photographs.
 
Richard is a member of the RHS Bulb Committee and has been a judge for more than seven years. He has judged floral exhibits at various RHS shows including the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival.

They say a photographer is either a picture taker or a picture maker. If so, Polina is firmly in the picture-maker camp.

It comes as no surprise that Polina has naturally followed the path of photography. In her early days in London, she worked with picture agencies and libraries, processing submissions, and managing production.

Polina holds photography distinctions with the Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society and award of Excellence for the the International Federation of Photographic Art (EFIAP), four RHS Gold medals, and four RHS Silver-gilt medals, as well as many national and international awards. Her style, love, and knowledge of the arts have given her the ability to build an impressive portfolio of still-life and flower photography, a body of work that has attracted a great deal of attention.

As a tutor, Polina is very much in demand. She runs regular workshops covering many aspects of creative photography. She is an international ambassador for Lensbaby optics.

Clive’s extensive portfolio of work regularly appears in tabloids and magazines such as The Sunday Times Colour Supplement, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Honey, Over21, Country Living, and Country Life.
 
He regularly contributes to publications for The National Trust, English Heritage, Royal College of Art, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, The London Coliseum, The Rothchild’s, ASMF Chamber Orchestra, and the Science Museum. His commissions extend to brochures and books for private country house clients, garden owners and makers, artists, and musicians.
 
Clive holds a British Empire Medal (BEM) for his outstanding contribution and dedication to photography and a Russian fellowship with the V&A.

Arabella St John Parker is an experienced journalist and editor with particular interest and expertise in gardens, interiors, buildings, design and place-making, photography, and the arts.
 
Prior to setting up her own business several years ago, she was the houses and gardens editor for Homes & Gardens magazine and before that, the Deputy Editor of Country Homes & Interiors. She writes for publications such as House & Garden, The English Garden, The Telegraph and Grand Designs, and she also edits the specialist title Garden Design Journal on a freelance, part-time basis.

Paul Debois is a multi-award-winning photographer whose diverse career of 20 years encompasses an extensive body of work photographing cars, people, and new development projects for numerous advertising and product placement campaigns.
 
In recent years, Paul’s love of nature and his fresh and inspiring approach to floral and landscape capture have taken his work in a new direction, creating studies of light, shadow, texture, and form where most would brush past. His assignments now fill the pages of The English Garden, Gardens Illustrated, Landscape, Modern Garden, and BBC’s Gardeners’ World, with countless features published in France, Germany, and the USA through photo agency GAP.
 
Over the years, Paul has taught botanical photography courses for the RHS and appeared as a guest judge for the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition.

Heather explores photography through installation, moving image, and book making. Her work is inextricably linked to landscape and the natural world, even at a distance or through an urban view.
 
She is an experienced educator and has run photographic workshops for community groups, galleries, museums, and photography festivals. She runs the PhotoBooth Project, a pop-up studio which has been commissioned to facilitate portrait photography workshops for different groups, such as an intergenerational project with older women and refugee girls for the Dulwich Picture Gallery and also The London Transport Museum, to celebrate the opening of the East London Line, and events to celebrate diversity and multi-culturalism in Tower Hamlets and the London Boroughs of Newham and Hackney.
 
She is currently a lecturer in Photography for the BA Photography course (recently voted Association of Photographers Course of the Year 2023 and 2022) at London Metropolitan University, East London.